Catching Up at last

I seem to have done nothing but make samples for the last couple of weeks, that and chase dust bunnies. Our 'Dippy Day' was on Monday gone and as one of two of the members had recently purchased machines for workshops we thought we'd go back to basics and get to grips with our sewing machines.

First we started scribbling to loosen our stitching up.

Next we tried our hands at a few basic quilting stitches, first using straight lines then getting a bit more adventurous.

Next we tried sewing Zentangles.  We first made a frame to work within and to make a border to hang onto when moving the fabric.   These were quilt sandwiches we'd prepared earlier.  Once the tangling was done we added a border using a decorative stitch.

We thought we'd like to try out the decorative stitches on our machines and make 'Stacked Stitches'.  This is a Bernina term and several stacked stitch 'recipes' can be found here.   There are also loads of other ideas.

This is one I made earlier (another Blue Peter job) its a quilted background and a piece of stacked stitches fabric cut into hearts and appliqued onto the background.  I think this would look good using Christmas colours and perhaps a snowman, tree or even a house with snow on the top.  Maybe my cards this year will look a bit similar.

This is another one I did earlier.  The fabric is sheeting over which I placed a plastic stencil and sprayed die onto it.   I layered wadding on the back and stitched round the petals then cut out the wadding to make the flowers puff up.   I put it on top of a second piece of wadding and stippled in various sizes in between the flowers.  Added some beads and a border.

We finally tried thread painting.   I painted the skey then didn't like it so I cut it out and layered the remainder of the card onto another background.  It gives it an almost 3D effect.

I'd been reading Karen Linduska's "Your Machine's Decorative Stitches" in preparation for our Dippy Day and made this piece using her technique.  You can see her book here.

I have been getting on with my second mini quilt and should have it finished within the next couple of days so will post it then.